China Unveils USD 70 Billion Policy Tool to Boost Investment

The World Bank on Tuesday projects China's economic growth to slow to 4.4% in 2026 and 4.3% in 2027 from the 5.0% growth rate in 2025, citing a prolonged property market downturn and cautious consumer spending. It warned that a deeper housing slump could further weigh on consumption, real estate investment, and related industries. The outlook follows continued weakness in the housing market, with new home prices falling 3.5% year-on-year in May, marking the 35th consecutive monthly decline. Despite these challenges, China's economy expanded 5.0% year-on-year in Q1 2026, supported by resilient exports. However, the government set its 2026 GDP growth target at 4.5%–5.0%, the lowest since 1991 and the first downward revision since 2023, after maintaining a target of around 5% over the previous three years.

China’s job market added 2.99 million new urban jobs in the first quarter of 2026, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate averaging 5.3%, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, as reported by local media. During the period, efforts focused on supporting employment for key groups, such as college graduates and young people, by seizing the critical window as graduates enter the job market and accelerating measures to help more people secure jobs as early as possible, ministry spokesperson Cui Pengcheng said at a news conference on Tuesday. China has set a target of around 5.5% for the surveyed urban unemployment rate in 2026 and aims to create more than 12 million new urban jobs this year. In collaboration with other departments, about 59,000 job fairs have been held nationwide, offering 36 million positions. Nearly 1 million “point-to-point” transportation trips have been provided for migrant workers, he added.

China’s securities regulator announced Friday that qualified foreign investors are allowed to participate in treasury bond futures trading starting the same day, with trading activities limited to hedging purposes, as reported by Xinhua Net. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement that the move is part of efforts to broaden the investment scope for qualified foreign investors and enrich interest rate risk management tools available to foreign institutional investors. The policy is also expected to enhance the appeal of yuan-denominated bond assets, improve the stability of foreign institutional investment behavior, and promote the high-quality development of both spot and futures bond markets, according to the regulator. The regulator added that it will roll out more measures to advance reform and development of the futures market and further promote the high-standard institutional opening-up of China’s capital market.